Browsing Category "Social Media"

Content marketers often use popular stories and news to create visual content for marketing purposes. Creating fresh topics is always a struggle whereas trending news presents an easy and effective way to engage users and bring more traffic to your site. Even though finding ideas for content is easier when you leverage trending news, it also presents a range of challenges. Firstly, news hijacking is not a new content marketing technique. A plethora of brands are using it on a regular basis, so consumers are well aware of the trick. Secondly, there is always a risk of being too late or undermining customers’ trust with content that isn’t consistent with the brand’s image. Despite the obvious drawbacks, news hijacking is a highly effective method when it comes to boosting traffic. Evergreen and long-form content form the core of the website, driving loyalty and trust, while content based on trending news can provide bursts of new traffic. The inspiration for visual content for marketing can come from many different places. This article explores how to create content that naturally incorporates trending news and stories into a brand’s own story. Of course, part of the success with creating content based on popular […]

Social media is always evolving and it’s crucial to stay on the cutting edge. You need to know what’s out there, but more importantly, you need to know what works and what doesn’t. Testing social media marketing isn’t always the easiest to figure out. Luckily, social media is the perfect place for experimentation. One bad post won’t hurt you, but one good post could provide a window into an entire strategy. It’s a low-risk, high-reward place. We’re huge fans of Simply Measured here at Wax and we highly recommend you download their new eBook The Social Media Marketer’s Testing Guide: Quality vs. Quantity In the meantime, here are some great tips to help you get started. Listen to your audience as the main strategy for testing social media marketing Technology exists to tell you what your followers are talking about. Simply Measured Listening is one tool that can help. We also like Reputology from the folks at Hootsuite. This data is valuable because it can be leveraged in a number of ways, from inserting your brand into discussions on relevant events to finding the right hashtag discussions. Listening to your audience can tell you the content they want to see […]

Small Business Saturday is only days away – November 25th – and it’s an important observance. Despite the swamp of big box store advertising we trudge through this time of year, small businesses, from retail to service providers and more, still make up a significant portion of American business and employment. Small Business Saturday was created by American Express in 2010 to encourage people to shop, dine and otherwise take advantage of small business services on the day after Black Friday. Since then it’s become a national movement to help highlight the importance of small business in the United States, with good reason. Here are some statistics about small business that might shift perspective: 54% of sales take place at small businesses. When it comes to holiday shopping, an average of 35% of it is done at independent retailers. Small business retailers return three times more money to local economies than national chains. Similarly, small business restaurants return two times more than national chains. For every square foot occupied by a small business, its local economy gains $179 vs. $105 from a chain store. 89% of consumers are in agreement that small business contributes positively to their local economy. Small […]

If you haven’t noticed the rise of influencer marketing campaigns, you haven’t been paying attention. Influencer marketing is the cousin of celebrity endorsement — updated for today’s consumer. With traditional celebrity endorsements, you’d have a well-known person appear in your TV commercial or ad. With influencer marketing, you’re playing more to authenticity by getting well-known figures to integrate your product into their daily lives and share the result on social media, YouTube, and in blog posts. The end goal of both is the same — selling through social proof. But the difference is palpable — 92 percent of people trust an influencer over an ad or traditional celebrity endorsement. As a result, influencer campaigns are going to become more and more important in the coming years. Savvy marketers need to strategize a plan of action. If you’re not sure where to start, take a page out of the book of these three successful influencer campaigns and the lessons they teach us. Glossier Glossier is a beauty brand that’s seen exponential growth since its launch in 2014. Four years prior to its launch, the brand’s founder, Emily Weiss, began building a content site — Into the Gloss — which is a […]

Remember the days when virtual reality was just a thing of sci-fi movies? More than just an entertainment item virtual reality and content marketing go hand in hand as part of your integrated marketing strategy. Moving the industry toward VR shifts the tide into developing virtual reality and content marketing into an immersive experience. In fact, a Greenlight Insights survey found that 71 percent of consumers view a brand utilizing VR as “forward-thinking.” Just by putting on the VR headset, you’re putting your users into your world. Take them to Spain or inside your headquarters — the possibilities are endless but within your control. Even if VR marketing still has some room to grow, it’s always the right time to join in a trend this influential. Whether you’re an established business, or a small business looking for more exposure, our tips on creating a virtual reality and content marketing strategy should definitely be considered. Aim for an Immersive Storytelling Experience Virtual reality allows you to offer a remarkably different way of presenting your brand in the market. Virtual reality and content marketing take owned media many steps further into engagement with an immersive storytelling experience. One of the most striking […]

A #Fridayrant on a bad industry trend toward too many pretty words and not enough meaning. My first career was in the restaurant industry. One thing we had to do was attend wine tastings held by the distributor so we could suggest new wines for the chain. Being only 22 years old, and not knowing a thing about wine I was totally out of my element. We had no pretty words to say. The other attendees usually had haughty remarks that indicated their high level of knowledge on this subject. My equally ignorant co-worker and I would make comments on the “legs” and say it was “oaky” without a clue as to what we meant. And then we decided to make up one standard observation. For just one wine out of the bunch, I would taste it, cock my head and say “it’s oblique. Without being obtrusive.” My writer friends know that phrase means absolutely nothing. But invariably the other snooty guests would nod their heads enthusiastically in agreement. And we realized, nobody really knew anything about wine. We were just parroting pretty words that we thought might be appropriate to the wine, and the occasion. As content marketing becomes more and […]

I’m speaking at the PRSA International Conference in Boston today on a topic I’m really passionate about. Personas have been a great tool in marketing for decades. In the modern communications world, personas are incredibly helpful but not often used. One area where they can add the most to a communications campaign is during the actual pitch process. Using personas for pitching is something that can boost what I call the “pitch to placement ratio” enormously. In this post, I’ll explain how to develop the five main types of media personas. In addition, I’ll provide a list of questions to help create pitch plans based on that information. My presentation is embedded below as well. Let’s examine the problem. Public relations people have been in effect communications “salespeople” for years. Their job has been to develop relationships with key media personnel, introduce story ideas and pitch their clients’ products, people and/or services as part of the story. Before the internet, social media and content marketing public relations played a key role in the ideation and development of media stories. But all that has changed. Factors like the explosion of blogs and other media outlets, reporters that are either changing jobs […]

In recent years, there’s been a lot of talk about the importance of marketing to millennials. But has your business made it a point to target the next generation of consumers dubbed Gen Z? If that’s not the case, it’s high time you start paying attention to their unique buying habits and attitudes and learn ways to market to Gen Z. Gen Zers, or those born after 1995, represent an estimated 72 million teens and young adults. To date, this cohort represents $44 million in estimated buying power, and by 2020, they will constitute 40 percent of all consumers. But despite the similarities in age between Gen Z and millennials, these two wholly-separate generations shouldn’t simply be lumped together. In fact, companies that identify Gen Z and millennials as one will have a hard time capturing the former’s attention — and that’s not simply because these young people are known for having notoriously short attention spans. Research has shown this demographic is more entrepreneurial in spirit and is getting an earlier start in the workforce than generations before them. Additionally, they set a higher premium on individuality, diversity and authenticity than millennials. And because Gen Z has literally never known […]

Social media marketing is a huge asset for any business with over a million new active social media users joining up every day. That’s an enormous amount of untapped potential just waiting for your business’ reach. Paid ads help you reach that growing audience. The question is, what’s the right social media budget for your business? How Do Most Businesses Spend? First thing’s first – social media isn’t cheap. The average business spends $200 – $300 on social media per day. Click To Tweet . This works out to a staggering $4,000 to $7,000 per month. But that doesn’t tell you much on its own. These companies could have very high revenues – $7,000 a month could be a drop in the bucket. Take a look at social media spending as a percentage of the marketing budget. CMO says businesses spend about 11.7% of their marketing budgets on social media. Click To Tweet . Other studies point to businesses spending anywhere from 10.1 percent to 16.3 percent of their marketing budget on social media. So, between 10 to 15 percent seems like a safe range for most businesses. Most businesses spend around 11% of their total annual revenue on marketing. […]

From a hot new band, to a boring car company, to every GenZ’s favorite social network, these unconventional marketing campaigns stood out from the crowd. Life is too short to stay in your comfort zone. That’s especially true of marketing campaigns. Not every campaign can be an innovative stroke of genius. But neither can every campaign follow the traditional general format. A well-timed unconventional marketing campaign can make a lasting impression and generate a great deal of buzz around your brand. Here are some of the most interesting unconventional marketing campaigns we’ve seen recently. Marketing Campaign #1 – Subaru, Share the Love Try to find the car in this supposed car commercial. And it’s not because Subaru doesn’t want to show off their cars – they won five prestigious awards in 2017. The Japanese car manufacturer’s recent “Share the Love” marketing campaign is part of a large scale US marketing outreach that accounts for 60% of the brand’s sales budget. Surely, a 60 second spot for a car that doesn’t even give a viewer a look at the car they’re trying to sell won’t work very well, right? It’s actually precisely what separated Subaru marketing campaigns from their lackluster competitors. […]